A Time to Stand
In the Dominion invasion ' |image= |series= |production=40510-525 |producer(s)= |story= |script= Ira Steven Behr and Hans Beimler |director=Allan Kroeker |imdbref=tt0708496 |guests=Brock Peters as Joseph Sisko, Andrew Robinson as Garak, Jeffrey Combs as Weyoun, Marc Alaimo as Gul Dukat, Aron Eisenberg as Nog, J. G. Hertzler as General Martok, Casey Biggs as Damar and Barry Jenner as Admiral Ross |previous_production=Call to Arms |next_production=Sons and Daughters |episode=DS9 S06E1 |airdate=29 September 1997 |previous_release=(DS9) Call to Arms (Overall) Nemesis |next_release=(DS9) Rocks and Shoals (Overall) Revulsion |story_date(s)=Unknown |group="N"}} (2374) |previous_story=Nemesis |next_story=Revulsion }} Summary Several months into their war against the Dominion/Cardassian alliance, the Federation is fighting a losing battle. Having long ago abandoned Deep Space Nine, Sisko and his crew have been taking on the enemy from the U.S.S. Defiant. But they grow more and more demoralized as fleets of promised reinforcements are demolished. Reacting to the heavy losses, Federation Admiral Ross informs Sisko that he is no longer in command of the Defiant. Ross soon reveals that the crew's new mission is to destroy the main Alpha Quadrant storage facility of ketracel-white, the drug to which the Jem'Hadar are genetically addicted. Without it, they will die. Ross reveals that he has a secret weapon to help them infiltrate Cardassian territory — a Jem'Hadar attack ship Sisko captured the year before. The crew soon embarks in the alien vessel. Unfortunately, the headsets used for piloting are painful for humans, and Sisko struggles with intense headaches. Suggesting Cardassian physiology may be more compatible, Garak volunteers to wear the headset, further proving his loyalty to Sisko. Meanwhile, Nog delivers some bad news — a Federation ship, the Centaur, is firing on them. Unable to identify themselves, Sisko suggests heading into Cardassian space in hopes that the Centaur will not follow. When the Federation captain doesn't give up, Sisko orders O'Brien to fire at his weapons array. The Centaur turns back toward Federation space, and the crew soon realizes why — three Jem'Hadar warships are approaching. Luckily, the enemy passes them without incident. Sisko discovers from where the ships came — the asteroid where the ketracel-white is stored. O'Brien sends down empty canisters to be "filled," with a bomb hidden inside one of them. Just as they prepare to leave, the facility raises its safety net, trapping the ship. Sisko realizes that the explosion will disable net before it hits them, meaning they have a chance to outrun the blast. They prepare to leave when the explosion hits early! The crew is able to ride the "wave" to safety, and the facility is successfully destroyed. However, the ship has been left without warp drive — and more than 17 years from the nearest Federation Starbase. Errors and Explanatios Nit Central # Cableface on Friday, March 05, 1999 - 1:01 pm: During this, and over the next few episodes , we see the entire federation fleet. What I'm wondering is, whatever happened to Constellation-class ships? Starfleet is still using design from that era, namely Excelsior and Miranda class which we see in this episode and Oberth class which we saw a few times in the next gen. But we never saw a Constellation after the Enterprise flew off into the sunset at the end of STVI. Rene on Friday, January 29, 1999 - 2:49 pm: We never saw the "entire" fleet! We only saw the "seventh" fleet. Anonymous on Tuesday, March 02, 1999 - 1:23 pm: Some of the wreckage in Best of Both Worlds pt 2 looks like it could have been from a Constitution class ship. And the ship design would be over 120 years old. Does Starfleet really keep ships this old in service? Remember ST2 They wanted to scrap the Enterprise because it was "20 years old." Charles Cabe (Ccabe) on Tuesday, March 02, 1999 - 11:02 pm: They still use the Miranda and Oberth classes of star ships on TNG and DS9. They would be 90 to 100 years old. I think there was a mention of a Constitution class ship in a museum somewhere. Adam Howarter on Wednesday, March 03, 1999 - 1:53 am: Maybe the Miranda's and Oberth's designs were newer or had more growth space in the design (allowing more comprehensive upgrades.) Maybe the Oberths weren't actually Oberths, did anyone else notice the Yosemite class looks just like the Oberth? The Miranda's are probably nearing the end of their life and are either being relegated to secondary duties (Lantree and Brittain) or were being decommissioned when the need for ships pressed them back into frontline service. What I'm asking is "where are the Nebulas?" Either I keep looking through them or the last one we saw was the Lexington when Bashir's nemesis visited the station. Maybe they're with the Constellations (which did appear to also fall off the map.) # Keith Alan Morgan on Friday, April 30, 1999 - 6:30 am: Jake really was being naive if he honestly believed that his reports would be sent out exactly as he wrote them. (But then TV shows have never done a good job portraying writers, which is odd, since someone had to write the scripts in the first place.) Ratbat on Wednesday, April 18, 2001 - 11:00 pm: Jake's being naive is actually quite believable. I did a degree in Professional Writing a few years ago, and many of my fellows there would get outraged and shocked at the idea of ever changing so much as a word of what they'd written before it went out through whatever medium. Young people into writing are often very idealistic, before they have a few runs around the hedge with any actual editors/printers/whatever. # I guess we'll never know why the security net was activated before they could leave. Mark Swinton on Monday, December 13, 1999 - 5:24 pm: Well here's my theory... The Jem'Hadar beamed the cannisters over from the Federation-manned ship. They detected a bomb in one of the cannisters and put up the net, smelling a rat. They decided to hold the rat... sorry, suspicious-looking ship in the net until they could determine that it actually was a bomb and not just something like a sensor ghost or an ultritium contaminant on the cannister. They found that it was indeed a bomb, set to go off in a matter of seconds. They tried to defuse it, panic setting their priorities for them, but miscalculated or made a mistake resulting in early detonation. # Dave on Wednesday, August 01, 2001 - 2:26 pm: Okay, Admiral Ross sends Sisko and crew into enemy territory using a stolen Jem-hadar ship. For security reasons the Centaur, which is patrolling near the Cardassian border, does not know about Sisko's mission or that he's on a Jem-hadar vessel so the Centaur attacks on sight when Sisko tries to cross into Cardassian space. All Starfleet had to do was order all of it's ships (including the Centaur) away from that area of the border so Sisko could have safe passage. dotter31 on Thursday, July 13, 2006 - 6:24 am: They couldn't do that because 1) those ships were there to defend against legitimate Dominion ships (which did attack the Centaur) and 2) clearing that part of the border would tip off the Dominion that something was going on in that area. # Zul on Sunday, February 23, 2003 - 8:51 pm: This probably has already been mentioned, but this is the first episode where there's a major nit in regards with Starfleet and how many ships they have. The 7th fleet lost over 100 ships in one engagement and implies that the other ships must be just as well numbered. In TNG's The Best of Both Worlds, the 40 ships that engage the Borg made it look like that was the majority of their fleet, in the words of Admiral Hanson "We're coming at them with everything we can muster." And it was very dramatic when that fleet was destroyed, signalling possibly most of Starfleet was destroyed. I'd find it hard to believe that the defense of Earth of 40 ships was all they can muster in regards to how many ships are now in DS9. Here, in DS9 they have thousands of ships (which makes more sense actually). Did Starfleet really rebuild that quickly. Although Shelby did say that the fleet would be back up in a year. The main point is that "fleets" in TNG were much much smaller than seen here. Like the 23 or so in Redemption and the few dozen in Descent. KAM on Monday, February 24, 2003 - 3:50 am: It's possible that there were other ships that were too far away to make the blockade at Wolf 359 in time, or even that some ships couldn't come because they were busy with something like one of these little wars that we occasionally hear about after the fact (Cardassians/Xenkethi/etc.). After Wolf 359 Starfleet probably decided that it would be a good idea to have a lot more ships ready to go, just in case. Another possibility is that some of these 100s of ships destroyed could have been older ships, or even ships that were not originally meant to be in battle situations, refitted with new weapons and shields. # John A. Lang on Friday, December 05, 2003 - 10:55 pm: Why did the Starbase send news of the 7th fleet to Bashir & not to Sisko? I mean, I know the 7th fleet suffered many casualties, but why would the Starbase think Sisko wouldn't go to their aid without telling Bashir first? It don't make sense. Sisko's in command..not Bashir & I'm sure if the Starbase contacted him, he'd go to the scene & offer Bashir's assistance. Dan Gunther on Sunday, December 07, 2003 - 5:01 pm: Huh... I just thought that Bashir was on the bridge when the call came in, and Sisko was in the mess with Martok et al. # dotter31 on Thursday, July 13, 2006 - 6:24 am: Why didn't the Centaur see that Sisko's ship was headed away from the Federation? They probably assumed it was heading back from a solo attack. Notes Category:Episodes Category:Deep Space Nine